16 October 2024 12:04 am Views - 74
| Nalin Jayasundera |
The Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO), the apex body, representing the destination management companies (DMC) industry in Sri Lanka, held its 44th Annual General Meeting (AGM) recently at Heritance Ahungalla and Aitken Spence Travels Managing Director Nalin Jayasundara was unanimously elected as the SLAITO President at the AGM.
The SLAITO, formally known as the Association of Group Tour Agents (AGTA), established in 1975, is an approved association of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. The SLAITO consists of over 200 DMCs in the formal tourism sector and destination management companies.
The SLAITO plays an integral role in all important private sector decision-making forums and has representations on the governing boards of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB), Sri Lanka Institute of Tourist Hotel Management (SLITHM) and Tourism Industry Skills Council.
The event was attended by SLTDA and SLTB Chairman Buddhika Hewawasam and SLCB and SLITHM Chairman Dheera Hettiarachchi, presidents of tourism associations: THASL, SLAPCEO, ASMET, tourism authorities and members of the SLAITO.
The following office bearers were elected at the SLAITO AGM for the year 2024/2025: Nalin Jayasundera of Aitken Spence Travels (Pvt.) Ltd, – President, Nishad Wijetunga of Wayfarers Ltd – Immediate Past President, Bobby Jordan Hansen of Columbus Tours (Pvt.) Ltd – Vice President, Gayangi Wirasinha of Abercrombie & Kent (Pvt.) Ltd – Vice President, Charith de Alwis of Tangerine Tours (Pvt.) Ltd and Nalaka Amaratunga of Walkers Tours Ltd – Hony. Secretary.
In his inaugural speech, Jayasundera stated that the SLAITO members are responsible for generating more than 70 percent of tourist arrivals in the formal tourism sector and spend over Rs.2 billion per annum for global destination promotions in addition to the TDL contribution. He welcomed the government’s decision to recognise the private sector-driven tourism industry as a priority industry and pledged the support of the SLAITO to achieve the government’s target of four million tourist arrivals with a revenue of US $ 9 billion by year 2030.
He insisted on the immediate launch of the global tourism marketing campaign and the completion of important infrastructure development projects such as the airport expansion and the Colombo-Kandy highway.
He highlighted the importance of creating a level playing field for all tourism stakeholders by regulating and facilitating the activities of all enterprises involved in tourism, all the line ministries working together with cohesion and better understating, introducing sustainable best practices and formulating strategies to address the human resource issue related to tourism to ensure benefits from tourism for the national economy.
He stated the need to get the marketing right; if not, Sri Lanka would be the best kept secret in world tourism. To create the demand, the importance of working together with the foreign tour operators, national carrier and other airlines and the major role to be played by the diplomatic missions were emphasised. The SLAITO is confident of working together with all the stakeholders to achieve the arrival and revenue targets prior to 2030 and make tourism the number one foreign exchange earner for the country.